Freedom Run 10K

This morning a few women from my neighborhood and a great from from church and I strapped on our running shoes to set a new goal for ourselves. Some of these women have gone and done the 5K up in D.C. for "The Race for the Cure" the past few years. None of us had done a 10K yet. So we all went with the expectation to just finish and get through it in any way we could. I had not intention of running the whole thing as I just didn't think my legs would work that hard for me. I began the race, and before long, found myself passing the 5K mark in my best time yet. Then I started the mind/body battle over walking it to the end or finishing it out by running. Before I knew it I was at the last mile mark. I have a terrible knee that bothers me every time I run any kind of distance. After a two other times having to stop at a tree and stretch my knee, I needed to stretch it out again. I had a very nice man stop and ask if I was okay. I can only assume he'd been watching me deal with the pain the few times before. I told him it was my knee and we both began to run again. He told me of his bad knee that he had troubles with and that he could relate. We began a short discussion on how if we only didn't need these darn knees to get us to the finish line. As we said this, another man came right up behind us patting us on the back saying, "come on you two, we're almost to the end!" As he passed us, we noticed that he was missing his right leg from the knee down. He had in it's place one of those curved prothsthetic (sp?) legs for runners. The other guy and I realized that this man had to of heard us talking about our bum knees and wishing them away as he approached us from behind. We looked at each other and said that we had no more need to complain about our knees, but to put them to work for us. What an inspiration this other guy was as he continued up the very hard hill that lead to the finish line.

It's amazing how you can relate so many things in life to the greater purpose of our being here. If the "good and important things of this life" were easy to gain, we wouldn't have need to try harder and to be tested. It's so easy to take the road that doesn't lead to hard work, or at times, pain, but those are how we grow and become strong. I had such a great talk with my friend, Sasha who ran the race with me, about how this relates to so many reasons for us being here in this life and what we are working for in the life to come.

I finished the race running the whole time and made it under 50 minutes. I'm feeling very good about the goal I met for myself today as well as for the lessons I've learned along the way. I have to tell you that the BEST part if it all was having Jason and the kids meet me at the finish line with great big hugs and kisses. That made it all worth getting there sooner rather than later. I love my family and the support they freely and continually give me.